The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-08-01
EMPLOYMENT In HEAVEN.
REV. TALMAGE SCOUTS THE IDEA
OF IDLENESS.

Crown Considered Improbable.
THE HAMPToNs, July 31.-The Rev. T.
Dewitt Talmage's sermon for this morning
was on the 'Employments of, Heaven :" and
his text Ezekiel t., l: Now it came TO pass
i'll the thrtieth year, in the fourth month,
III the fifth day of the month, as l was
among the captives by the river of Chebar,
that the heavens were opened.n
Ezekiel, with others, had been expatri-
ated, and while i'll foreign slavery was stand
ing on the banks of the royal canal which
he and other serfs had been condemned to
dig by the order of Nebuchadnezzar-
royal canal in the text, called the river of
Chebar; the illustrious exile had visions of
heaven. Indeed, it is almost always SO that
| the brightest visions of heaven come not to
those who are on mountain top of pros
| perity, but to some John ON desolate Pat
| mos, or to some Paul in Mamertine dungeon,
| or to some Ezekiel standing on the banks of
| ditch he had been compelled to dig-yea,
to the weary. to the heart-broken, to those
whom sorrow has banished.
The text is very particular to give us the
exact time of the vision. 1t was in the
| thirteenth year, and in the fourth month,
and in the fifth day of the month. So you
| have had visions of earth you shall never
forget You remember the year, you re-
member the month, you remember the day,
| you remember the hour Why may not we
have some such vision this morning, and it
| be in the sixth month and in the fourth day
of the month";
The question is often silently asked. though
| perhaps never audibly propounded: "What
| are our departed Christian friends doing
now" The question is more easily answered
| than you might perhaps suppose. Though
| there has come no recent intelligence from
| the heavenly city and we seem dependent
| upon the story of eighteen centuries ago,
| still think we may from strongest infer
ence decide what are the present occu-
! pations OF our transferred kinsfolk.
After God has made q nature he never
| eradicates the chief characteristics of
| its temperament. You never knew a man
| phlegmatic in temperament to become san
| guine i'll temperament. You never knew q
man Sanguine IN temperament to become
| phlegmatic in temperament. Conversion
| plants new principles in the soul, but Paul
and John are just as different from each
other after conversion as they were different
| from each other before conversion. IF CON
| version does not eradicate the prominent
| characteristics of the temperament neither
will death eradicate them
You have, then, only bya sum in subtrac-
tion and a sum in addition to decide what
| are the emplOyments of your departed
friends in the better world You are to
subtract from them all earthly grossness and
add all earthly goodness, and then you are
| to come to the conclusion that they arc
| doing now in heaven what in their best mo
! ments they did on earth. The reason that
| so many people never start for heaven is be
cause they could not stand it if they got
| there if it should turn out to be the rigid and
| formal place some people photograph it,
We like TO come to church, but we would
not want t. stay here to next Christmas.
! We like to hear the hallelujah chorus, but
| we would not like to hear it all the time foI
fifty centuries. 1t might be on some great
occasion it would be possibly comfortable tc
wear a crown Of gold weighing several
pounds, but it would be an afllicti0n to weaI
such a crown forever. In other words, we
| run the description of heaven into the
ground while we make that which was in
| tended us especial and ceebrative to be the
exclusive employment of the heaven. You
might as WELL if asked to describe the
habits of American society, describe 9
| Decoration Day, or IA Fourth of July or al
autumnal Thanksgiving, as though it were
all the time that way.
am not going to speculate in regard tC
the future world, but must by inevitable
| laws of Inference and deduction, and com
mon sense. conclude that in heaven we vii
be lust as different from each other as we are
are now different, and hence that there will
be at least as many different employments il
the celestial world rs there are employment
| here Christ is TO be the great love, til.
great JOY, the great rapture, the great wor
ship OF heaven; but will that abolish en-
ployment2 No more than loves ON earth
| pGtcrnal, filial, fraternal, conjugal love
abolish earthly occupation.
In the first place, remark that all thos,
of our departed christian friends who OF
earth found great joy IN the fine arts are
now indulging their tastes in the same di
rection. On earth they had their gladdes
pleasures amid pictures and statuary. and il
the study of the laws of light and shade
and perspective. Have you any idea tha
that aifiuence of faculty at death collapsed
| and perished? Why so, when there is more
for them to look at, and they have lleener
appreciation of the beautiful, and they
| stand amid the very looms where the sun
sets and the rainbows and the spring morn
ings are wovcns
Are you so obtuse as to suppose that be-
cause the painter drops his easel and tn,
sculptor his chisel and the engraver hi
knife, that therefore that taste, which b,
was enlarging and intensifying for forty OF
fifty years. is entirely oblitelated. Thest
artists, or these friends of art, ON eartl
worked in coarse naterial and with imper.
feet brain and with frail hand. Now they
nave CUGTlctl LtltJi dtb iilbO
and into wider circumference They are al
their old business yet, but without the
fatigues, without tho limitations, without
the hindranccs Of the terrestrial studio.
Raphael could now improve upon hi
masterpiece Of Michael the Archangel nov
that he has seen him, and could improv,
upon his masterpiece Of the Holy Family
now that he has visited them. Michae
Angelo could better present the Last Judg
ment after he has seen its flash and hearC
the rumbling battering-rams of its thunder
EXQUISITE colors here, graceful lines here
powerful chiarCscuro here, but | am per
suaded that the grander studios and tht
brighter galleries are higher up by TIN
winding marble stairs Of the sepulchre aiit
that Turner, and Holman, Hunt and Rem
brandt, and Titan, and Paul Veronese i
they exercised saving faith in the Chris
whom they portrayed upon the canvas, arr
painters yet, but their strength Of faculty
multiplied ten thousand fold. The roasoi
that God took away their eye and theil
hand, and their brain, was that He nigh
give them something more timber, NOR,
wiedy, more sbillful more multiplitaut.
Do not therefore, be melancholy among
the TAPESTRIES and the bric-a-brac, and th,
enlbroideries and the water colors, and tn,
works of art which your departed friend
used to admire. Do not say: II am soiTl
they had TO leave all these things" Rathe
say: ~ am glad they have gone up Il
higher artistic opportunity and apprecia
tionn Our friends who found 50 much jo,
| =, ~, aua a,.te on Garth arp NOW iuxurintin1